Dong Yang

Hi. My name is Dong and I'm the Senior Development Engineer at Teva's Waterford site.

Leaving academia to join Teva was a big step for me... I previously worked as an Engineering Lecturer at Waterford Institute of Technology, teaching Electronics and mechanical engineering. Our research group started working on a digital projects for Teva and made a prototype. I later heard that Teva was recruiting for people to work on their digital projects. I thought, why not?

Waterford is a great place to work... The people are very friendly, teach you lots and always try to help you. It feels like a family and I love working here. There are also always plenty of exciting projects to get involved in.

Day to day, my first priority is dealing with urgent tasks coming in for post-monitoring of the market... This includes investigating any suspected issues reported about our inhalers globally. I also enjoy working on the longer-term project of developing new technology for the market.

People often wonder why we have an x-ray machine in the lab... It’s to check if inhalers are mechanically broken inside before opening them for investigation and more. Teva is a leader in innovative lab equipment.

I feel really supported in my personal development... Teva funded my part-time master’s degree in 2017 for a Master Engineering in Electronics Engineering. One of my biggest achievements is getting three patents in the past six years - it’s very rewarding that people like my ideas. I’ve learned so much about electronics and mechanical engineering from colleagues.

We have a strong collaboration with our local university... There are lots of research students at South East Technological University in Waterford. We learn from the university’s cutting-edge technology and machines, which allows us to expand our lab into the region. We also supervise final year students who come to our lab at Teva to work on projects, some of whom aim to use the inhaler technology they’ve learned about for a PhD.